Netgear "Digital Entertainer Express"

I bought this1 Media Player after re-examining Len's slightly earlier model. It's a full-fledged network media player (hi-def video and images as well as audio) and is thus a full-fat replacement for the Roku Soundbridge. It doesn't require the presence of a media server, or that your main PC be "on"... unless, of course, you're intending to access files held on that particular PC.

A (slight) superfluity...

... of socketry? I'm only using the hdmi, the Ethernet, and (of course) the mains power.

Dark side

It does a grand job playing video files I've downloaded from the Interweb or ripped from my set of NTSC and PAL standard definition DVDs. The model I have has no local HDD though it obviously has some non-volatile memory wherein it holds knowledge of what files live where on my network. It reads files (chosen from its "media player" GUI menu structure, built after it has first snooped around my network picking up [knowledge of] A/V files present in any of the directories I've made shareable) from NAS or local USB. I can then play them via hdmi to the A/V amp and thence to the screen.

It can also handle (not sure if "stream" is the most accurate term) A/V material, news feeds, some podcasts, etc from the Interweb, and it understands almost all video and audio formats.

Footnote

1  At a massive discount, further assisted by a 60th birthday gift voucher from my cousins in Birmingham.